The forest closed around us like a trap. The air smelled of iron, of damp, and of something else… something that made instincts quiver. Ethan noticed it before I did: his body tensed, his breath shortened, and his gaze fixed on the thicket encircling us.
“They’re tracking us,” he murmured.
“How many?” I asked, barely daring to speak.
“Too many.”
The silence broke with the c***k of branches. Then another—behind us. And another more. It didn’t take long to see them.
Reddish shadows among the trees, moving with an unnatural synchronicity. They were wolves, yes, but not like ours. Their fur had a crimson sheen, as if blood bled from within them. Their eyes, yellow, seemed to burn with a fire that did not belong to this world. They looked very much like the beast Serena’s body had become.
